Research in the Turkic Stone Statues of Saryarka at the Present Stage

The author analyzes the history of the recent period of studying the medieval stone statues of Saryarka (the Kazakh Uplands) from the early 1990s until now. Field surveys were mainly conducted by a research team led by Zh.K. Kurmankulov. During this period, a number of summarizing and special papers have been published (L.N. Ermolenko, Zh.K. Kurmankulov). L.N. Ermolenko developed an iconographic classification of medieval statues, systematized their attributes, and identified types of the Kipchak “sanctuaries”. The researcher suggested the reconstruction of the semantics of the Turkic complex “statue – fence – balbals” and the Kipchak “sanctuaries” with statues. In her works, she proves the originality of Western Turkic statues, raises questions about the landscape context of medieval sites including statues, the impact of natural factors on the preservation of statue's original position, discusses the issue of the original appearance of statues, etc. Based on the analysis of the current state of knowledge about Saryarka stone statues, the author of the paper formulates the main objectives of further research: the study of structures with statues using the excavation method, redocumentation of statues using the state of modern methods, equipment and computer technologies, conducting petrographic studies, creating an electronic database, etc."